Because some Act 3 content was scrapped in a way that leaves hanging threads with no resolution, awkwardly pointing you to things that were changed/removed, such as:
spoilers obviously
Cazador’s Mansion entrance is through some kind of ramparts in Lower City. You only learn about Cazador from Astarion’s quest (and those Gur people I think), then you most likely kill him right after meeting him in his dungeon. This quest doesn’t tie into main story whatsoever.
Based on some speculation (of course there’s no way to find out what were Larian’s true plans for this character), Cazador was meant to be a politically important figure in Upper City, and possibly had more related quests. If devs dropped this idea, that would explain how Cazador became a random boss enounter that doesn’t really have any impact outside of Astarion’s quest. It also makes sense why entering his place is so weird.
Gortash’s coronation takes place in Wyrm’s Rest, a military fortress of the Flaming Fist and not, you know, High Hall where the parliament and other members of Baldur’s Gate upper crust (ahem Cazador) plot their political intrigues. Also Gortash doesn’t even get a Chosen’s form like Orin or Ketheric during their fights.
Omeluum’s ring, which was supposed to protect you from Absolute’s influence, has been at some point turned into an anti-charm item. In EA it used to block your illithid powers, but they’ve been reworked since. The dialog doesn’t really reflect that.
Kithrak Voss gains some battle scars and loses a part of his ear when you meet him later. AFAIK this is not explained at all in the game. Apparently it’s a relic of a now removed fight between Orin and Githyanki in the creche.
That Iron Flask quest with a trapped spectator has a lackluster resolution, possibly because it was related to Upper City at some stage of development.
Edit:
Infernal Iron, Enriched Infernal Iron, Soul Coins that have very little use
Gold, Silver, Bronze bars and a bunch of other items that feel like they should be useful for crafting
All the talk about ‘consequences’ of using tadpole powers. No, actually there are no consequences.
Personally I think in Act 3 general pacing is a bit wacky, also the amount of quests there are in Lower City is overwhelming. Is this a result of moving a bunch of quests that were originally intended for Upper City? No way to find out.
Of course it’s perfectly normal to cull content that seems too ambitious, time consuming etc., Larian just didn’t properly cauterize what was left after removing all that stuff, which made the story flow really weird in some cases.
Also in the release Panel From Hell (timestamp here) it was mentioned that Crystal, the associate writing lead spent 6 months working on various ending permutations, and now we don’t get to see most of them because they’re too long. Oof.
How do you know those quests aren’t the result of events not triggering?
Because some Act 3 content was scrapped in a way that leaves hanging threads with no resolution, awkwardly pointing you to things that were changed/removed, such as:
spoilers obviously
Based on some speculation (of course there’s no way to find out what were Larian’s true plans for this character), Cazador was meant to be a politically important figure in Upper City, and possibly had more related quests. If devs dropped this idea, that would explain how Cazador became a random boss enounter that doesn’t really have any impact outside of Astarion’s quest. It also makes sense why entering his place is so weird.
Gortash’s coronation takes place in Wyrm’s Rest, a military fortress of the Flaming Fist and not, you know, High Hall where the parliament and other members of Baldur’s Gate upper crust (ahem Cazador) plot their political intrigues. Also Gortash doesn’t even get a Chosen’s form like Orin or Ketheric during their fights.
Omeluum’s ring, which was supposed to protect you from Absolute’s influence, has been at some point turned into an anti-charm item. In EA it used to block your illithid powers, but they’ve been reworked since. The dialog doesn’t really reflect that.
Kithrak Voss gains some battle scars and loses a part of his ear when you meet him later. AFAIK this is not explained at all in the game. Apparently it’s a relic of a now removed fight between Orin and Githyanki in the creche.
That Iron Flask quest with a trapped spectator has a lackluster resolution, possibly because it was related to Upper City at some stage of development.
Edit:
Infernal Iron, Enriched Infernal Iron, Soul Coins that have very little use
Gold, Silver, Bronze bars and a bunch of other items that feel like they should be useful for crafting
All the talk about ‘consequences’ of using tadpole powers. No, actually there are no consequences.
Personally I think in Act 3 general pacing is a bit wacky, also the amount of quests there are in Lower City is overwhelming. Is this a result of moving a bunch of quests that were originally intended for Upper City? No way to find out.
Of course it’s perfectly normal to cull content that seems too ambitious, time consuming etc., Larian just didn’t properly cauterize what was left after removing all that stuff, which made the story flow really weird in some cases.
Also in the release Panel From Hell (timestamp here) it was mentioned that Crystal, the associate writing lead spent 6 months working on various ending permutations, and now we don’t get to see most of them because they’re too long. Oof.